1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system cooling, and more particularly to a system and method for information handling system cooling fan operating curve selection.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems have adapted over time to handle an increasing number of tasks with processors and other components that operate at increased cycles to perform increased numbers of calculations in reduced time. One problem that arises with more powerful processing components is that such components tend to create increased amounts of excess heat. In order to ensure proper operation of the components, information handling systems typically incorporate cooling equipment, such as a cooling fan that maintains a flow of external air through the information handling system chassis and over the processing components. To maintain adequate cooling airflow, information handling system manufacturers generally layout components within the chassis to effectively transfer excess heat while also attempting to meet other design constraints, such as reduced acoustics, cooling component costs and complexity at assembly. Thus, for example, as new processors are released with different heat generation characteristics, manufacturers face new design challenges to ensure that cooling requirements for the processor are met. To meet these challenges, manufacturers typically adapt cooling fan performance characteristics and chassis airflow characteristics for each information handling system configuration. However, changing these characteristics for each new processor is an expensive proposition, especially where other constraints are impacted, such as acoustic constraints, shock and vibration constraints and chassis component specifications.
Generally, information handling system manufacturers make design tradeoffs that plan within current designs the flexibility to adapt cooling subsystems for use with future processor revisions and speeds. This tends to have negative cost and acoustic impact on existing designs since the possible thermal limits of to-be-developed processors are unknown. For instance, thermistor-based fan controllers sense the temperature within an information handling system chassis to adjust fan speed and thus maintain the temperature within defined constraints. As another example, intelligent fan controllers include an integrated circuit that determines fan speed through a number of inputs such as processor temperature, chassis temperature, fan RPM, and other sensors. Where such closed-loop cooling systems seek to maintain thermal conditions that differ from the thermal conditions desired for a given information handling system configuration, suboptimal processing and acoustic performance often results.